Confucius Institute As Media

A decade has passed since the establishment of the world's first Confucius Institute in 2004. Currently, more than 500 Confucius Institutes and 1000 Confucius Classrooms can be found in 134 countries and areas, which has constructed a wide coverage and multi-level global communication network, based on which, the language culture communication practice is also unceasingly deepening. On the basis of perfecting educational function, Confucius Institute's particular role in terms of promoting international communication has been proven more considerate, thus become a carrier of the "going out" of Chinese culture and a significant platform for the world to learn China. From the perspective of communication, both the "platform" positioning of Confucius Institute and the role of "bridge" and "link" has indicated not only that Confucius Institute has played an indispensable role as to promoting the international diffusion of Chinese culture and practicing the concept of multiculturalism, but also it has functioned as an intermediate for multiple subjects to take part in cultural conversation and sharing; in addition, it has also served as an important media of Chinese language transmissionMedia is the basic element of communication activities, but also an important theoretical tool for communication analysis. It is a concept of speech, instead of actual reality, and has undergone compromise, acceptance, modification and practice in various living environments and realistic contexts. In the prosperous era of mass media, media is mostly regarded as a carrier or technical tool to transmit information. With the cultural globalization and the deepening of social media, dramatic changes have taken place to the form of media, so the interpretive framework in which technology predominates cannot fully cover the multiple changes that media bring to human society.Theoretical achievements of media ecology and general mediology allow us to realize that humanity is the inherent attribute of communication and media, and media constitute the open space connecting different social relations and activities, hence possess a broad meaning and rich connotation per se.Approaching from the perspective of communication, taking Media Ecology and General media studies as theoretical sources, applying methodology based on structure and balance, and based on discussion of the contemporary concept of media, the paper analyses the media property and function of Confucius Institute, explore the conditions and methods to achieve the media function of Confucius Institute, and also puts forward the means to maintain its media position.Around the hypothesis that Confucius Institute is media, the paper attempts to give answers to the following questions:(1) how to recognize and understand the media in the paradigm of media ecology? (2) Does Confucius Institute possess media properties? (3) What is the media function of Confucius Institute? (4) How to achieve the media function of Confucius Institute? (5) How to maintain and strengthen the media positioning of Confucius Institute? Around the above problems, this thesis consists of 7 chapters, with content of each as follows:Chapter one:Introduction, aiming to introduce the origin, meaning, theoretical basis, research overview, overall design and research framework of the whole research.Chapter two:Analysis of the concept of media. Based on the theoretic results of media ecology school and general media studies, this chapter sorts out the concept of media under media ecology paradigm. Firstly, the chapter traces the word media both its Chinese and foreign origin, as well as the theory of "pan-media" and "media ecology", in order to clarify the fact that media has relatively broad references. Then, following the logic from school of thought to research paradigm, the chapter mainly concentrates on the structure and complementary of "media being ecology", and clarifies that the concept of media is supposed to be an ecological system made up by materials and organizations in a technological and humanistic way. Lastly, based on the rethink after a thorough inspect of practice, a conceptualization is given towards the connotation of media.Chapter three:The analysis of Confucius Institute's media property. This chapter sorts out attributes and functions of Confucius Institute on empirical level. As a nonprofit educational institute, functions of Confucius Institute has extended from Chinese teaching, culture communication, education and culture exchange to comprehensive cultural exchange platform. Secondly, practice should be combined with theory to demonstrate the media attribute of Confucius Institute. It assumes that Confucius institute has fundamental media functions of education, notification, explanation, culture continuity and entertainment in empirical school paradigm. Meanwhile, as a materialized entity, Confucius institute also coincides with related discussion on media attributes and functions in media ecology paradigm. Finally, the external presentation of Confucius institute as media is analyzed on symbol meaning and entity attribute levels. On symbol meaning level, discourse analysis and word frequency analysis are made on reports of Confucius institute on four newspapers, such as people's daily, etc. It turns out that the symbol meanings of Confucius institute, such as "link", "bridge", etc., are all referred to its media attribute. On entity attribute level, based on particularity of Confucius institute's attribute, objective, running model and development strategy, Confucius institute has media attributes of focusing on intercultural communication, taking root in local social and cultural circumstances, influencing social development at home and abroad, and emphasizing cultural and educational exchange and non-governmental contacts.Chapter four:Analysis of Confucius Institute's media function. This chapter first analyzes Confucius Institute's media function from both static and dynamic aspects. The paper believes that Confucius Institute's media function is a multi-level, three-dimensional system:Synchronically, it aims to bring Chinese language and culture to the masses, carry out cross-cultural activities, and combine with political, economic and ecological areas to produce corresponding functions. Diachronically, it is a functional concessive succession of delivery, transformation and integrity by appearing as media institution and platform. Secondly, through the analysis of Confucius Institute's media function's limits, it is proposed that demand-interest satisfaction is the basic action principle and interest coordination and social relationship construction is the basic mode of action. After that, according to theories of media ecology, this chapter analyzes Confucius Institute's media functions from perceptual, iconic and social circumstances. Lastly, an analysis of its media function from tool and social orientations is made and the positive and negative impacts under different value orientations are also presented.Chapter five:The achievement of Confucius Institute's media functions. Based on social interaction and relation communication theories, the chapter analyzes the external and internal conditions of Confucius Institute's media functions, and holds the opinion that factors like the demands of new international order; the cultural nature and social influence of media technology; the concessive improvement of local culture; the efforts from China's reconstruction of its great power image are the external factors. The internal factors consist of the following:insistence upon interactional communication and humanized concepts; cultivation of communication body; construction of transmission content; improvement of transmission channels. Secondly, the paper brings forward the consensus of concept, value and order so as to achieve Confucius Institute's media functions. Lastly, on the basis of its achievement, it is important to build a trust relation between all relevant parties, consolidate the independence of media, and put forward that Confucius Institute should take on the path of specialization, differentiation and industrializationChapter six:The maintenance of Confucius Institute's media position. This chapter starts from the interaction of the media circumstances and social situation constructed by Confucius Institute, taking on ecological perspective, and indicates that the organizational basis, technological support, living space and development pattern should be taken into consideration to achieve this goal. Firstly, it is significant to strengthen the organizational system and achieve the gradual internalization of the external norms, and also a two way interaction in which the norms are being adjusted and improved through coordination and sharing. Secondly, the application of digital internet technology should be stressed so as to accelerate the creation of production based on internet mobile technology; Information sharing network based on data is to constructed; The coordination of the virtual platform and the entity platform is also to be realized to play the role of promoting the optimization of the media function. After his, it is to deepen local strategy, support community interaction and sharing of resources, and participate to build community consensus emotionally, to further develop and use it to access the media advantage through individual participation of community information sharing. Finally, it is to promote the configuration integration to form the international cultural community; The activation of market mechanism and establishment of multi evaluation system also benefit the formation of an organic Confucius Institute, hence achieving sustainable development.Chapter Seven:review and conclusion. A summary of main points, conclusion and innovation, with indication of follow-up research direction.